Journaling
To provide durability in the event of a failure, MongoDB uses write ahead logging to on-disk journal files.
Journaling and the WiredTiger Storage Engine
Important
The log mentioned in this section refers to the WiredTiger write-ahead log (i.e. the journal) and not the MongoDB log file.
WiredTiger uses checkpoints to provide a consistent view of data on disk and allow MongoDB to recover from the last checkpoint. However, if MongoDB exits unexpectedly in between checkpoints, journaling is required to recover information that occurred after the last checkpoint.
Note
Starting in MongoDB 6.1, journaling is always enabled. As a result, MongoDB
removes the storage.journal.enabled option and the corresponding
--journal and --nojournal command-line options.
With journaling, the recovery process:
Looks in the data files to find the identifier of the last checkpoint.
Searches in the journal files for the record that matches the identifier of the last checkpoint.
Apply the operations in the journal files since the last checkpoint.
Journaling Process
With journaling, WiredTiger creates one journal record for each client initiated write operation. The journal record includes any internal write operations caused by the initial write. For example, an update to a document in a collection may result in modifications to the indexes; WiredTiger creates a single journal record that includes both the update operation and its associated index modifications.
MongoDB configures WiredTiger to use in-memory buffering for storing the journal records. Threads coordinate to allocate and copy into their portion of the buffer. All journal records up to 128 kB are buffered.
WiredTiger syncs the buffered journal records to disk upon any of the following conditions:
For replica set members (primary and secondary members):
If a write operation includes or implies a write concern of
j: true.Additionally for secondary members, after every batch application of the oplog entries.
Note
Write concern
"majority"impliesj: trueif thewriteConcernMajorityJournalDefaultis true.At every 100 milliseconds (See
storage.journal.commitIntervalMs).When WiredTiger creates a new journal file. Because MongoDB uses a journal file size limit of 100 MB, WiredTiger creates a new journal file approximately every 100 MB of data.
Important
In between write operations, while the journal records
remain in the WiredTiger buffers, updates can be lost following a
hard shutdown of mongod.
Tip
See also:
The serverStatus command returns information on the
WiredTiger journal statistics in the wiredTiger.log
field.
Journal Files
For the journal files, MongoDB creates a subdirectory named journal
under the dbPath directory. WiredTiger journal
files have names with the following format WiredTigerLog.<sequence>
where <sequence> is a zero-padded number starting from
0000000001.
Journal Records
Journal files contain a record per each client initiated write operation
The journal record includes any internal write operations caused by the initial write. For example, an update to a document in a collection may result in modifications to the indexes; WiredTiger creates a single journal record that includes both the update operation and its associated index modifications.
Each record has a unique identifier.
The minimum journal record size for WiredTiger is 128 bytes.
Compression
By default, MongoDB configures WiredTiger to use snappy compression for
its journaling data. To specify a different compression algorithm or no
compression, use the
storage.wiredTiger.engineConfig.journalCompressor setting.
For details, see Change WiredTiger Journal Compressor.
Note
If a log record less than or equal to 128 bytes (the minimum log record size for WiredTiger), WiredTiger does not compress that record.
Journal File Size Limit
WiredTiger journal files have a maximum size limit of approximately 100 MB. Once the file exceeds that limit, WiredTiger creates a new journal file.
WiredTiger automatically removes old journal files and maintains only the files needed to recover from the last checkpoint. To determine how much disk space to set aside for journal files, consider the following:
The default maximum size for a checkpoint is 2 GB
Additional space may be required for MongoDB to write new journal files while recovering from a checkpoint
MongoDB compresses journal files
The time it takes to restore a checkpoint is specific to your use case
If you override the maximum checkpoint size or disable compression, your calculations may be significantly different
For these reasons, it is difficult to calculate exactly how much additional space you need. Over-estimating disk space is always a safer approach.
Important
If you do not set aside enough disk space for your journal files, the MongoDB server will crash.
Pre-Allocation
WiredTiger pre-allocates journal files.
Journaling and the In-Memory Storage Engine
In MongoDB Enterprise, the In-Memory Storage Engine is
part of general availability (GA). Because its data is kept in memory, there is
no separate journal. Write operations with a write concern of
j: true are immediately acknowledged.
If any voting member of a replica set uses the in-memory
storage engine, you must set
writeConcernMajorityJournalDefault to false.
Note
Starting in version 4.2 (and 4.0.13 and 3.6.14 ), if a replica set
member uses the in-memory storage engine
(voting or non-voting) but the replica set has
writeConcernMajorityJournalDefault set to true, the
replica set member logs a startup warning.
With writeConcernMajorityJournalDefault set to false,
MongoDB does not wait for w: "majority"
writes to be written to the on-disk journal before acknowledging the
writes. As such, "majority" write operations could
possibly roll back in the event of a transient loss (e.g. crash and
restart) of a majority of nodes in a given replica set.